Callisto
（
Καλλιστώ) (called also
Helĭcé). The daughter of Lycaon, king of Arcadia, and an
attendant of Artemis. Zeus saw her, and, assuming the form of Artemis, accompanied the maiden
to the chase and overcame her virtue. She long concealed her shame; but at length, as she was
one day bathing with her divine mistress, the discovery was made, and Artemis, in her anger,
turned her into a bear. While in this form she brought forth her son Arcas, who lived with her
in the woods, until the herdsmen caught both her and him and brought them to Lycaon. (See
Arcas.) Some time afterwards she went into the temenus, or
sacred enclosure of the Lycaean Zeus, which it was unlawful to enter. A number of Arcadians,
among whom was her own son, followed to kill her, but Zeus snatched her out of their hands,
and placed her as a constellation in the sky (
Apollod. iii. 8;
Hygin.
Fab. 177). It was also fabled that at the request of Heré,
Tethys forbade the constellation of the Bear to descend into her waves. This legend is related
with great variety in the circumstances. According to one of these versions, Arcas, having been separated from his mother and reared among men, met her one day in
the woods, and was on the point of slaying her, when Zeus transferred the mother and son to
the skies.
